gender and achievement in schools

• prior to the '80's boys would outperform girls in education
• girls get better results in national curriculum tests at the end of primary school than boys
• girls get better results in most subjects at GCSE
• girls are more likely to pass alevels
• more women than men go to university
• the national curriculum forced girls to take more male dominated subjects; such a maths and science
• Swann and gradol (1993) said that most time teachers spend with girls is academic, whereas boys have more behaviour management
• archer (2006) argues that women still face issues in education as asian girls are often branded as robots and black girls as loud and aggressive
• some sociologists argue that girls are socialised into more appropriate behaviour form schools
• equal pay act and discrimination act have ct=reated opportunity's of girls and raised aspirations
• feminist movement created a greater change in female expectations
• change in labour market as female dominated professions (retail and healthcare) are increasing
• change in family dynamics, where women have children later in life, puts a greater focus on career
• more equal roles in households allow women to work
• male identity crisis due to increased female independence and an increase in male unemployment
• interpretivists say that teachers have lower expectations of boys , negative labelling
• feminisation of teaching limits male role models
• 'reading' is stereotyped to be feminine, limiting boys exposure to reading
• bedroom culture: girls are more likely to spend time in their bedroom completing homework or reading, encouraging sucess in education
• Paul willis (1970) showed that boys sins value education and accepted a future career in manual labour
• Mac an Ghail (1994) said boys form the subculture of macho lads due to a masculinity crisis
• Fuller (1980) studied a group of carribean girls who rejected negative labels and instead adopted positive subcultures
• girls tend to choose essay based subjects
• boys tend to choose more technical based subjects
• gender socialisation between male and female stereotypes and expectations influences subject choice
• in 2015, 28,500 boys entered a level physics, whereas only 7787 girls were entered
• at the age of 5, 74.3% of girls reach expected literacy levels, compared to 54.6% of boys
• 29% of boys reach the higher standard in maths, compared to 25% od girls
• 25% of girls achieve grades 7-9 at GCSE compared to 19% of boys
• the gap at a level is reducing as girls receiving a's is only 0.6% more than boys
• gender imbalance at post-16 education, as subject choices are are heavily base don gender men are more likely to take up vocational courses, whereas women are more likely to do degrees
• in 2019, 54% of women were awarded a degree
• removal of coursework from from GCSE's in an attempt to reduce the gap between boys, as girls were more likely to do well in course work
• Goard found that girls were more self motivated and diligent at work, and took more pride in their effort and presentation
• invisible elevator: invisible barriers that keep women black from still being able to reach the top of the corporate ladder
• greater female representation gives girls more role models and encourages them to pursue careers in different industries
• feminisation of the education system
• boys are more likely to be labeled negatively, and therefore fall into more anti-school subcultures
• boys may turn to subcultures in a fear of being labeled feminine ; Mac an gmail labelled this subculture 'gay students' and 'macho lads'
• raising boys achievement: introduction of a range of teaching strategies, including same sex teaching